Medical cannabis growth in Canada stalls as stockpiles rise

Canada’s medical cannabis corporations are bolstering their inventories forward of adult-use legalization, even whereas signing up fewer new sufferers than ever, indicating an industrywide shift in focus to assembly demand in the upcoming leisure market.

As of the top of March, affected person registrations with Canada’s licensed medical marijuana producers reached virtually 300,000. That’s a 10% improve from the earlier quarter – the slowest growth on document.

New knowledge from Health Canada additionally exhibits that licensed producers proceed to construct up their inventories of dried cannabis and oil to go off any potential scarcity.

The complete quantity of dried marijuana in licensed producers’ inventories reached 44,000 kilograms (97,000 kilos) on the finish of March, a 13% improve from the earlier quarter.

Cannabis oil inventories reached 14,600 kilograms on the finish of March, up 31% from the earlier quarter.

Together, corporations have stockpiled 58,600 kilograms of cannabis.

A current report by the Bank of Montreal estimated demand for medical and leisure cannabis in the primary yr of legalization at 337,400 kilograms.

Aaron Salz, founding father of the Toronto-based Stoic Advisory consulting agency, stated medical cannabis growth is stalling as a result of licensed producers are reallocating efforts and capital.

“Companies are now intimately focused on building brands, inventory for the adult-use market, and even retail in some cases. That’s redirected past efforts of acquiring patients and medical market share,” he stated.

“Whether or not this strategy is financially sound is yet to be determined, but its what investors are demanding. I think that’s all been the main driver of medical market slow down.”

Licensed producers are getting ready for an impending wave of demand from the leisure market, stated Alex Shiff, senior advisor for Navigator, a Vancouver, British Columbia, communications agency.

“There are forecasts for how much cannabis will be necessary to meet consumer demand, but these are simply estimates. As an industry, it is important to try and ensure that we do not have shelves sitting empty come Oct. 17.”

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